elfen_liedfandomcom-20200223-history
Eastern Theology in Elfen Lied
Theology, the study of concepts of God, plays a subtle but pivotal role in the Elfen Lied series, though more so in the manga rather than the anime series. For the purposes of this article, the term will be used as a catch-all for all religious concepts in the series. No derision of or dismissive comparisons between faiths of any kind will be tolerated. This article is strictly for those theological concepts as presented by Lynn Okamoto in Elfen Lied. Examples may be used to extrapolate or speculate as to meaning and possible intent, but those must be measured. Only registered users who are not newly-registered may edit this article. The Abrahamic God The term Abrahamic God refers to the monotheistic idea of God as a supreme being and creator of the universe, transcendent and mostly unknowable, who nonetheless sometimes interacts with his creation on a personal level. The ancient Biblical figure Abraham is considered a Patriarchal figure across the Middle East, the common ancestor of all the Semitic peoples. He is therefore considered the common remote founder of the faiths that would become Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The God he held to is, for all intents and purposes, the God most refer to in their view and imagery of the Deity. Since many ideas common to various views of the Abrahamic God are invoked in the series, it is this view we will proceed from. 'Possible intent and will ' The very first mention of God in the series comes in the very first chapter of the manga series, from Kurama, who declares to a doubtful Japanese Vice-Minister that the captive Lucy is the first of a new species chosen by God to replace Humans. This reference contains some possible difficulties. Kurama seems to be saying that God's will can be subverted by keeping this mutant species under lock and key, which calls into question whether, in his view, God is all-powerful. On another front, he may be accepting the inevitability of the implied judgment against Humans, but feels he must keep this back for as long as possible, for all the people that would be killed, should Lucy's destiny be fulfilled. This then calls into question whether his view of God includes omniscience. Another possibility is that Kurama is in fact not at all religious, and uses God as a term to personify the fact that a new species with the power to supplant Humans as the dominant species has emerged. It is a fact of his world that this has occurred, so perhaps God is simply used by him in this case to refer to the course of natural evolution and selection, not an actual being with a comprehensible will and direction. 'The effort to supplant by the Chief' The next major instance, and perhaps the most important, comes from Chief Kakuzawa who asserts his desire to be seen as God to the new Diclonius race when it takes over the Earth. Some part of this declaration seems to be aimed at a game he is playing with Kurama, in order to gauge his responses and set him on the path to abandoning his post at the Diclonius Research Institute. Chief Kakuzawa's own beliefs in God, if any, are difficult to gauge from these ambitions, which run far deeper than the mere grandiose statement he makes to Kurama, wherein he speaks of mating with Lucy himself. Something of the mangaka's intent and subtext may be garnered from the fact that Kakuzawa desires to be God, but is deceiving several people on several levels, from the Japanese government all the way down to his eldest son (who does not seem to know of his younger half-brother's existence) and also hides his horns from most, which can be seen instead as aspects of Lucifer, who is said to have coveted God's position as well. One possible point of view has the Chief actually believing that setting the rule of the new race in motion and thereby receiving their eventual worship will truly make him the Supreme Being, which makes God's position a utilitarian one, something that can be gained in a hostile takeover. Backing up this notion is his declaration after launching the satellite containing the weaponized Diclonius virus that not even God can stop it, as though God were simply a rival CEO who has been financially outmaneuvered. Needless to say, this would seem to limit the potential power of the position he craves. Another idea is that Kakuzawa is bypassing religion entirely and only focusing on the fame and name recognition of being viewed and worshiped as God. His view may be one where either nature or a non-transcendent being like himself got the credit for the creation of Humans, and that what was luck last time will in this instance be the result of his own planning. However, ascribing a completely atheistic point of view to the Chief is contraindicated by several things. While a man who transacts in hard science, he expresses no doubt in his family's legends of a time when his people were true demons with immense powers, and he sees Lucy as the rebirth of the pure bloodline, a messiah that will reinvigorate 'their race'. Demons need an opposite number in religious terms, yet perhaps again Kakuzawa saw his 'demon clan' as merely another separate evolution like Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. Some mix of true religious belief and mechanical takeover must have been in play, since among the Chief's pillars in achieving his plans was the birth and existence of his youngest son, the male Diclonius who is also Kaede's half-brother. His view in this was, since his son would be a new 'Adam' to his half-sister's 'Eve', that the father of Adam is God, and this along with his plans would 'promote' him (Christ is described in some Christian literature as being a second Adam as well). This also led to a potential problem in his eugenics-based plan. Possibly, since Kaede and the boy were the first two of the new species, the usual problems with such a union could be avoided. But their mother, while capable of bearing Diclonius children, was herself Human, as were their fathers and all their ancestors. Ignoring the possible consequences of incestuous unions, not to mention the implied repetition of these unions in their potential children, speaks both to the Chief's insanity and to the thought that he saw his as a mission with cosmic sanction, able to put aside scientific concerns such as diversity of the genetic pool, to say nothing of his son's age. Throughout all this, his view was grandiose enough to also ignore Kaede's possible rejection of his plans (and possible revulsion at the idea of union with her own little brother) and to completely dismiss the notion that his family's legends of Diclonius ancestry were just that and nothing more, when a simple test in a facility replete with genetic-savvy scientists would have revealed that he himself was Human. Away from direct aspirations to becoming God in whatever view he held, some of the Chief's more loathsome actions are worth noting in a religious light, albeit an appropriately grim one. By way of a mutative series of operations, he transforms his young daughter Anna into a monstrous creature he calls a 'goddess', and gifted with near-perfect future sight. Such a 'promotion' is the province of 'pagan' gods of old, as most Abrahamic-based faiths preclude not only the worship but even allowing for the existence of other gods. Also in that (as traditionally depicted) polytheistic light is his dismissal of his elder son's death, and his rape of Kaede's mother, in ways a twisted parody of both Christian and pagan tales of the births of great men and beings. Rather than seduction, trickery or blessed informing through messengers, the conception of Kakuzawa's would-be Adam involves the captivity and destruction of someone who wants nothing to do with him. 'Secondary efforts to supplant' The Chief's goals inspired at least two others to join in his ambitions and out-maneuver even him. These were his son, Professor Kakuzawa, and the Professor's assistant, Doctor Arakawa. The Professor sought to rape the captive Nyu, seeking just as his father had (by all indications without the Professor knowing about it) to become the father of the new species. When Nyu receded in favor of the Lucy personality, he made an attempt to bargain his way into his desired position, but Lucy had no use for him and ended his life quickly. Despite ending up as a minor schemer in the series proper, he could be viewed as evidence of a guiding hand, whatever form it ultimately takes. Because in fact, if not for his ultimately futile plans, Lucy would likely not have escaped, and the vaccine that truly saved Humankind would never have been developed. Like the nature-versus-nurture debate about Diclonius violence, the evidence offered by the mangaka is far too inconclusive to offer up anything other than speculation about the roles of fate, irony, blind luck and even perhaps some manner of supreme being. On the other hand, of all those seeking a form of legendary immortality from the Diclonius conflict, only Arakawa really succeeds. At first, her goals are no less selfish and greedy than those of her employers. In fact she is perhaps worse, lucking into an opportunity to almost recreate the world with one hand and then provide the cure for this savage recreation with the other, while back-stabbing both her first employer (by building on his vaccine research) and then that man's father (by stealing his thunder while serving him in a genocidal scheme), however loathsome they both were. While she warns Kouta against keeping Lucy around, she worries not so much for the danger she poses to the world as the obstacle Lucy presents to her own plans. At this time, she deeply regrets the wager that may place her into sexual bondage, but shrugs off as merely disturbing the horrible Unknown Man's abuse of Diclonius girls in the facility. Perhaps it is only the mangaka who wishes to teach her a lesson, and yet it is worth noting that each time her star rises further, the regret she feels and cannot shake grows all the stronger. It starts when she informs her boss of the location of Maple House, fully realizing she has probably doomed those inside and likely the world as well, trying to place the blame on Kouta for not heeding her warnings. It is almost exactly when she at last perfects the vaccine that, by happenstance, Lucy's final battle with the Chief plus the bloody uprising of the Clone Diclonii shatter the foundations of the corrupt facility. Her rescuers, the controlled clone Diana and the dual-loyalty Agent are sacrificed before her eyes when her life and knowledge become more important than anything else. Yet rather than feel elation, entitlement or confirmation of the status she tried so hard to achieve, it is only her guilt and sense of despair that deepen, a feeling that only intensifies when the leader of the Saseba-sent operatives tasks her in no uncertain terms for how her plans have threatened the world. In fact, that Operative has no idea of just how complicit Arakawa was, having helped weaponize the virus that will one day infect all men into becoming the sires of Diclonius, who will likely then kill them. But Arakawa knows this, and her guilt does not decrease as the once-lost vaccine is recovered, and learning of the Chief's death at Lucy's hands, which would seemingly confirm her victory, only deepens her sorrow. As Lucy's last power-bursts hasten her own death, they also seem set to destroy the world. Yet the world and Arakawa endure, but again this is through no effort of hers. The scheme she is stopping she helped to start; the research was gotten off the ground by her first boss; and finally, it was no chess-game of her making, but the power of the love Lucy held for Kouta, and he for her, that removed the threat of the Diclonius Queen once and for all. If Kouta's narrative of the Diclonius War is correct, Arakawa would live in a ravaged world whose people narrowly avoided extinction, and who saw her as the one who averted the Apocalypse, a heroic figure widely revered, perhaps one day worshiped, and only she would know the lie and shame of it all. By getting what she wanted in so many respects, but also now seeing it all as utterly worthless and even wretched, far from earning divine status of any type, Arakawa can be said to be in a kind of Hell. The psychological make-up of these characters also supports setting aside all religious connotations. One could argue that to the Kakuzawas, the word God was a throwaway term, one meant strictly to denote their desired position. Since the stigmatizing of their ancestors was so much in their thoughts, and they often referred to their own line as demons of some kind (though many different ones exist in legend, both in and outside Japan), it is possible their family had its own version of the creation myth/story, and if it practiced a faith, it taught ideas radically different from most known faiths. Setting aside real-world/real-life debates about the nature of the universe, within the series itself, it seems that many characters hold to the idea of God, whatever their beliefs on the issue of existence, will and level of power. On the inverse, it is worth noting that it is those who speak most often of God (Kurama, the Kakuzawas, Arakawa) who ultimately cause or aid in bringing great suffering to the world. Then again, theirs are empty, shallow ambitions, focused on prestige and power, rather than any sort of true religious zealotry. 'The suffering within the series vs. Concepts of God' Religious scholars have, throughout recorded history, struggled with the question that is sometimes summed up as : "If God Exists, Why Is There Evil In The World?". While impossible to answer for our world, and for the world depicted in Elfen Lied, what can be addressed here are possible answers for that fictional world (Admin's Warning : Only For That Fictional World, and it must be supported by in-series events) using the characters and situations we know. One of the simplest and most intensely provocative answers is that of the God-figure's non-existence. What rhyme, reason or cosmic purpose can be gleaned from the unspeakably awful life and death of Number 28? In this viewpoint, if a cosmic being with any master purpose existed, where would the suffering seen, Diclonius and Human alike, possibly fit in? Oddly, a cold creation with no topmost guide can seem a comfort. Things simply happen, so why not merely accept them and live happier as a result? Intense belief can cause misery in and of itself. Wouldn't the Kakuzawas and the world have been better off without their family legends guiding them to genocidal conspiracy? Wouldn't Yuka have been better off letting go of the memory of a boy she might well never see again? If Lucy had put Kouta aside, wouldn't this have gained her the world? Was a hope that things would get better a lifeline for Nana, Mayu and Aiko Takada, or a chain around their necks? Yet these goals focused these characters, and gave them purpose. That which would make us happiest is a great goal, but it doesn't make much of a story. On a technical note, it is finally confirmed that something unknowable and mystic in nature does exist in that universe. Many things can be explained by science and super-science in that world but not all. The twin girls that appear at the very end of the manga series, who are the play-friends of Kouta's young daughter Nyuu, are also the apparent reincarnations of Kaede's two main selves, Lucy and the first Nyu, and one of them is even called Kaede. Using only in-series evidence, this reunion is a genuine miracle. But while this possible answer is mostly rebuffed, it leaves of host of other possibilities in its wake, some more potentially troubling than "Does Not Exist". The next commonly-arrived at answer has the deity/supreme being not wishing to eliminate evil because it is not their concern. A myriad of viewpoints converge and diverge all at once, from cold uncaring Lovecraftian powers that barely notice the world they created/inherited, to a rough parental figure, feeling they have done enough by giving life to their 'children'. At worst, this point of view allows for the travails of mortals to be as much concern to a deity as a reader holds for characters in a story, or even finding amusement in their pain. The works of master mangaka Go Nagai often use a deity who is even sadistic and cruel, with the world as we know it a doomed time loop meant to punish Satan's rebellion, with Armageddon coming and going repeatedly. While there is sadly far too much in the Elfen Lied story that meets this grim outlook, the hope inside it is also real. Despite Kouta's heated denials, he loves Kaede too much to let her die, and at first cannot bear to be the one to end her suffering. Yuka's bouts with hopelessness over her love for Kouta end not with her suicide but with his affirming what she has always wanted to hear. While it is hard to look at Nana's life and not feel sorrow, it is also difficult not to feel joy at her dogged perseverance and recognize that she ends up happier than most people will ever know. But if God as viewed through the prism of Elfen Lied is neither uncaring nor indifferent, another disturbing option also comes into play. The idea (for the moment accepting God's existence for the sake of the question) that God started a creation that is not fully under control and not subject to the deity's will and whim seems to deal with concerns about indifference, but reduces the status of such a being to the point where their will and direction is merely a guideline. In the viewpoint of the argument that God is in fact not all-powerful, the deity is brought down almost to mere superhuman levels, perhaps even mortal in some way, able to be replaced by the deity's own creations if they just work the angles. This notion seems to jibe with the expressed ideas of Kurama, the Kakuzawas, and Arakawa. Yet the series does not shy away from showing them as deeply flawed and at times even deeply immoral individuals, engaging in or not fighting against sometimes hideous actions and policies. Arakawa expresses the idea, perhaps not entirely seriously, that she will be sent to Hell for her actions, there to meet her old boss, Professor Kakuzawa. Again perhaps, her view of God is not clear; while both she and the Kakuzawas want that name and worship, it could be that they either dismiss the idea of the deity's existence (not uncommon among scientists) or that they view the actual deity as separate from the faiths and worship associated with the idea. They in effect can't become the transcendent eternal God, but they can usurp the public view of the deity and gain a foothold for their names in all of Human history as a result. In the end, Elfen Lied's evil or morally conflicted characters may see God in this manner, ironically almost a 'mad scientist' like themselves, albeit elevated, but of course it remains unclear if this is also the view of the mangaka, or the view he wished to impart on the series. The least satisfactory answer, and yet the most commonly accepted in the overall debate, is that the evil and depravity seen in worlds real and fictional occurs as a mix of the supreme being's overall plan and the free will of Humans to act one way or another, and where that mix falls in terms of balance between the two is as unknowable as any divine plan. Elfen Lied is not a world of easy What-If's. Even if Tomoo had not killed the puppy, he and the others at the orphanage had already deeply alienated Kaede. Even if Kouta had told the truth to Kaede about Yuka's gender, Kaede's reaction might have been just as bad. If Mayu's mother had never remarried, Mayu would avoid a hideous trauma, yet her mother's innate coldness would have eventually come out, maybe even making Mayu just like her in time. If Kurama had avoided Number 3, he might have never realized the source of Diclonius infections, and may have eventually lost his wife and child to the war that he would now likely be on the wrong side of. Yet at the same time choices mortals make remain pivotal, and every step in the series leads to the final sad choices the would-be lovers must make. In this view, the final answer is that God is neither uncaring nor low-powered, yet all this only serves to make finding even speculative answers exasperating. The Messiah The word Messiah itself simply means 'The Anointed One', a reference to a practice of pouring a ritually blessed and scented oil onto the forehead of one who is to be a ruler or one of similar importance. The term in practice refers to a redemptive figure sent by a positive force of creation, like God, to save either a select group or perhaps all people from not only evil itself, but the very influence of evil. This figure is often predicted in prophecies that range from the vague and easily re-interpreted to the highly specific and yet easily shaded for the purposes of a faction. The word is derived from the Hebrew, and the emergence of this figure, called 'Immanuel' by the line of Hebrew Prophets, was awaited by the peoples of ancient Israel, subject to many invasions and dispersals, as an expectation of restoration to justice and homecoming. In the ancient world, there were many such people said to be this figure both inside and outside the Jewish peoples, and the idea was so common even wary Roman authorities shrugged off their existence, so long as their own power was not preached against. One such figure, and usually the one considered the archetype in such discussions, was Yeshua-Bar-Yossef, also known as Jesus Of Nazareth, the direct founder of the Christian faith. That said, messianic figures in the world continue to emerge to this day, with followings of various size, and many times associated with eschatological worries, the idea that the end of the world is approaching and must be spiritually prepared for. The Messiah is a transformative figure to some, but in many instances, they are said to have arrived to punish those who meet the criterion for this. The Messiah is often said to be arriving or returning to bring the world back to an Edenic state, but ideas of what this Eden looks like differs as much as the invoked figures. Not all Messiahs are there to save all they can. 'The Reluctant One' The primary example of one seen as a Messiah is Kaede herself, though she never uses, seeks or invokes that title. In fact, her efforts to remake the world are stated as being blatantly selfish : As she sees it, Humans have no place for her, so she must replace them with Diclonius like herself just so she can live and maybe be happy. The redemption or saving of others only comes into mind when she begins to care for those in Maple House, especially Kouta, the great love of her life. She is not a leader of her people, if indeed the Diclonius would even accept one. Her role as Queen is an evolutionary one, and although she may have more power than most others and more skill, she is not looked to or called upon to lead them into a new world. Kaede wants her utopia not for any of them, but so that she herself can live there. In fact, not only are her relations with others of her kind strained, almost every instance in the series of one Diclonius meeting another involves fighting and death. Even Nana is more fearful of her species than any notion of 'loyal'. They are not a unified species, and seem to have no desire to be so. At no time does Kaede state any common cause with the girls she has helped create, and her escape from the Diclonius Research Institute is aimed solely at reuniting her with Kouta, so she can offer an aoplogy for murdering his family. The other girls trapped and likely miserable within the Institute are not in her thoughts at all. In Kaede's case, as with his false connection to the Diclonius, thinking of her as a messiah is largely the delusional invention of Chief Kakuzawa. In a way, Kaede does save the world - but only by choosing not to destroy it, and then again only because of her love for Kouta. 'The Lead-Footed One' Some fans look to the series' other lead for a messianic figure. On the surface, an argument can be made on Kouta's behalf. He offers friendship and love to the spiritually starved Kaede without hesitation, all while fully aware of the horns that have caused others to reject and berate her. His first real sin is made out of caring, not wishing to hurt Kaede with the thought that he is seeing another girl. Wrongly thought to be a cruel liar like those she had known, Kouta is made to suffer at Kaede's hands, and in a way he himself dies along with his family, his memories of much of his life 'killed' in order to spare him the pain brought about by his offer of love to his new friend, who was not ready for the fact that love can also mean pain. When he finally gains back his memories, in essence he returns to life and is now a figure of stern judgment over Kaede, yet still pushing for love to prevail, which it does when he is almost literally brought back to life. Through love, he has convinced to Kaede to end her life and the threat that life unwittingly poses to the world. Arakawa gave the world a vaccine. Kouta's love kept the planet itself from being ripped apart by Human hatred, ancient and modern. His continued love for Nyu even moves the often-demonic DNA Voice to ask him to show Kaede's savaged body the final mercy of release. In the anime, Mayu describes Kouta in glowing terms, opening his house and heart to those like herself, Nyu, Nana and in the manga, Nozomi But to call Kouta a messiah is perhaps as inaccurate as it is for Kaede. TBC...